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‘Studio 54’ documents the short but wild life of the famed New York disco

Walter AddiegoOctober 9, 2018Updated: October 10, 2018, 4:25 pm

Diana Ross (foreground) and Studio 54 co-owner Steve Rubell (front, center) were among the revelers at the famed New York disco, in Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary “Studio 54.” Photo: Frameline

In its day, the New York disco Studio 54 held a kind of crummy fascination for many Americans, with its parade of celebrities, tolerance of outrageous behavior – including open drug use — and notoriously exclusive admission policy. We were saturated with images of crowds clamoring for entry and glimpses of the frenetic scene inside. The fun lasted about 33 months, until the club’s two founders were sent to jail in February 1980.

Those years, and their consequences, are recounted in Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary “Studio 54,” which gives a lot of camera time to one of those founders, Ian Schrager, now 72. (The other, Steve Rubell, died in 1989.) Although willing to talk, Schrager isn’t about to spill all the beans; he does allow that, yes indeed, those were days of excess.

At one point, Schrager recalls the incredible blowout that took place at the club on the night before he and Rubell went to prison. (Studio 54 was a cash machine, and the pair were nailed for tax evasion; the infamous Roy Cohn was their lawyer.) “What were we thinking?” he asks, and he may well be referring to the whole Studio 54 scene.

The club’s era predated AIDS, and part of its appeal is that it embraced and celebrated the emerging gay culture of the time. Celebrities gay and straight made the pilgrimage to 54th Street, and many became regulars: Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Elton John, Bianca Jagger, even a youngish Michael Jackson. (Schrager, who met Rubell at Syracuse University, was straight; Rubell was gay but closeted, and succumbed to complications from AIDS.)

It seems inevitable (with hindsight, of course) that this feverish bacchanal would quickly hit the wall the way it did. With Schrager and Rubell incarcerated, the club was sold and went through several mostly uninteresting incarnations. Director Tyrnauer (“Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood”) tries to find the heart of whatever Studio 54 was all about, but never actually gets there – instead, we’re left to goggle at the footage and still photos of near-naked dancers and gossip-column habitues.

In addition to Schrager, the director — who is also a journalist — talks to Jack Dushey, a silent partner in the club. But inside details of Studio 54’s downfall are elusive. In the end, there’s some naughty, voyeuristic fun to be had from “Studio 54,” but the bottom-line story of the club — assuming that is of value — is still to be told.